Tag Archives: LGBT rights

WA State Sues Trump Over LGBTQ Patient Protections

Via press release: Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s new rule vastly limiting anti-discrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act. Among many other changes, the rule removes explicit protections against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex stereotyping. This allows for discrimination against LGBTQ patients — particularly transgender patients. The rule also …

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Colorado Now 11th State To Ban “Gay Panic Defense”

Denver’s CBS News affiliate reports: Using a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity as an excuse for murder or violence is no longer a valid defense in Colorado courtrooms. Colorado is now the 11th state to outlaw the so-called “gay or trans panic defense.” The most publicized case where the defense was used is the Matthew Shepard murder trial in …

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NYC Councilman Ruben Diaz Announces Retirement

Via press release from NYC Councilman Ruben Diaz: After serious analysis, of which I spent in prayer with God, family, ministers and after a political analysis, I have made the decision to follow the example of my two sons. My biological son Ruben Diaz Jr., and my political son Marcos Crespo. I have been blessed to have served with honor …

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Polish President Reelected After Anti-LGBT Campaign

The Associated Press reports: Polish President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who ran a campaign with homophobic and anti-Semitic overtones, narrowly won a second five-year term in a bitterly fought weekend election, defeating the liberal Warsaw mayor, according to a near-complete count of votes. Duda’s supporters celebrated what they saw as a clear mandate from voters for him and the right-wing …

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Putin Mocks Rainbow Flag At US Moscow Embassy

The Moscow Times reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday mocked a rainbow LGBT pride flag hung from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, suggesting it reflected on the orientation of the diplomats. During a televised video conference, a lawmaker told Putin that the U.S. Embassy had hung a rainbow flag on its facade for the first time to celebrate Pride …

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LGBTQ History: “The Foot Wore A Spiked Heel”

It was 51 years ago today that the queer community of New York City finally said “Enough!” As I’ve done for the last few years on this day, I’m reposting the story that the New York Daily News ran one week after the Stonewall Riots. Note how the story drips with condescension and ridicule. We’ve come a long, long way …

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ISRAEL: Tel Aviv Recognizes Same-Sex Marriages In Challenge To Law Allowing Only Religious Ceremonies

The Times of Israel reports: The Tel Aviv-Jaffa municipality on Sunday said it would allow cohabiting couples to register their relationship and enjoy marital rights, in a protest of the government’s refusal to recognize same-sex couples or those not wed under the state’s religious authorities. Tel Aviv-Jaffa Mayor Ron Huldai said the move, coinciding with the country’s Pride Week, makes …

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Trump Admin Sued Over LGBTQ Patient Protections

Politico reports: A coalition of advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Monday over its rollback of LGBTQ patient protections, arguing that last week’s Supreme Court decision extending workplace legal protections to gay and transgender employees invalidates the new rules. Big picture: The suit marks the first challenge stemming from the 6-3 high court decision that anti-discrimination protections based on …

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Limbaugh Condemns “Cultural Rot” Of LGBTQ Rights: We’re Now So Low, We’re Looking Up At A Filthy Gutter

“This cultural rot has been happening for 30 years. It’d been happening since the sixties, the modern era of it. It’s longer than 30 years, and I have been waiting for this magical moment where most Americans finally realize what a cesspool the Democrat Party has turned the country into, what a cesspool American morality has become, what a cesspool …

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Perkins: Neil Gorsuch Has “Demoralized Conservatives”

Via email from hate group leader Tony Perkins: The “Young Scalia,” as he was nicknamed, who said he learned from Antonin that “words matter — that the judge’s job is to follow the words that are in the law” just replaced history’s understanding of “sex” with ideas no one in 1964 could have fathomed. If you’d have told people 56 …

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Senate Republicans Shrug At Landmark SCOTUS Ruling

Politico reports: Conservatives are seething over Justice Neil Gorsuch’s opinion that cemented new protections for LGBTQ people. The Senate Republicans who confirmed him? Not so much. The Republican Party seemed generally supportive of both the substance and process by which the Supreme Court extended Civil Rights Act protections to gay, lesbian and transgender workers. President Donald Trump declined to trash …

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Obama Celebrates SCOTUS Ruling: “Happy Pride Month”

The Hill reports: Former President Obama took to Twitter on late Monday to wish the country a “Happy Pride month” after the Supreme Court ruled that gay and transgender people are protected against employment discrimination under exiting civil rights laws. The tweet also featured a photo captured by former White House photographer Pete Souza in 2015 showing rainbow colors cast …

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SCOTUS Ruling May Undo Attack On LGBTQ Healthcare

Axios reports: The Supreme Court’s historic ruling on LGBTQ nondiscrimination could sideline the Trump administration’s new policies on health care and adoption. The ruling’s ripple effects will be felt immediately, and could ultimately derail regulations the administration had finalized just days ago.  Federal civil rights law prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, and the Supreme Court said Monday that …

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Trump: LGBT Rights Ruling “A Very Powerful Decision”

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump said on Monday he will live with the U.S. Supreme Court decision that a federal law barring workplace discrimination protects gay and transgender employees. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the ruling was a very powerful decision. As you can see below, CBS is reporting that Trump says he read the ruling. …

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Joe Biden Hails “Momentous” Ruling On LGBTQ Rights

Via press release from Joe Biden: Today’s Supreme Court decision is a momentous step forward for our country. Before today, in more than half of states, LGBTQ+ people could get married one day and be fired from their job the next day under state law, simply because of who they are or who they love. This landmark 6-3 ruling affirms …

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Democrats Applaud “Historic Victory” On LGBTQ Rights

From the Democratic National Committee: Everyone deserves a workplace free of harassment and discrimination. Today is a historic victory for the nation and for the LGBTQ+ community; a victory of dignity over discrimination, of love over hate, of equality over prejudice. But while we celebrate today, our fight is far from over. The Trump administration’s rollback just three days ago …

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LGBTQ Groups Celebrate Historic SCOTUS Ruling

Via press release from Lambda Legal: Today, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis sex, also protects employees from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Today’s decisions confirm workplace anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people …

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BREAKING: SCOTUS Rules For LGBT Employment Rights

NBC News reports: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that existing federal law forbids job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, a major victory for advocates of gay rights — and a surprising one from an increasingly conservative court. The decision said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate …

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Biden Blasts “Despicable” Attack On LGBTQ Patients

The Hill reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday slammed the Trump administration’s decision to roll back LGBTQ protections in the Affordable Care Act, calling the move “unconscionable.” “This action is unconscionable — and to do so during Pride Month, on the fourth anniversary of the deadly terrorist attack at the Pulse Nightclub that claimed 49 lives, many of …

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Dems Condemn New Trump Admin Anti-LGBTQ Policy

From DNC Chairman Tom Perez: “Shameful. On the four-year anniversary of Pulse, in the middle of Pride Month, and during a pandemic, Trump has taken a knife to protections against health care discrimination put in place by the Obama-Biden administration. This illegal attack on the health of LGBTQ+ Americans and other marginalized communities is appalling, but tragically unsurprising. “Trump and …

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